THE FIRST WELL
There once was a small kingdom around a lake.
One very hot summer, it did not rain and the lake dried up. People grew anxious
and went to the King. "It has not rained for so long. Our fields are
barren!" said the farmers. "There are no fish to catch. How shall we
earn a living?" asked the fishermen. "Save us from disaster, good
King," urged the women, as their children cried with thirst.
The King sent his four generals in all
directions to look for water. The first general went east, towards the sunrise;
the second went south, to the dust and heat; the third went west, where the sun
sets; and the fourth followed the North Star.
They searched day and night, night and day;
high and low they searched everywhere, but in vain. Three of the generals
returned, empty-handed. But the general who had gone north was determined not
to fail his King. At last, he reached a cold mountain village.
As he sat at the foot of the mountain, an old woman came by and sat next to him. The general pointed at the horizon and said, "I belong to a beautiful kingdom, where it has not rained for a whole year. Can you help me find water?"
The woman motioned the general to
follow her up the mountain and into a cave. “We have no water in our country
either,” she said. Then, pointing to the icicles in the cave, she continued:
“We call this ice. Take some, and your kingdom will never go thirsty again.”
The general broke off a huge piece, loaded it onto his horse-cart and rushed
back home.
By the time he reached the court,
the enormous icicle had melted into a small lump of ice. Nobody in the court
had ever seen ice, so everybody gazed at it with wonder. “This must be a
water-seed!” one of the ministers exclaimed suddenly. The King ordered the
‘water-seed’ to be sowed immediately.
While the farmers dug a hole, the
lump dwindled in the sun. They swiftly placed the seed in the hole, but before
they could cover it up, it had vanished. The farmers there grew confused and
worried. They dug deeper and deeper into the earth, all night long, looking for
the mysterious seed.
At the break of dawn, the King
found the farmers fast asleep around a hole. Curious, he peeped in and cried
out in amazement: “Wake up, my worthy men – the water-seed has sprouted!
There’s water in the hole!” This is how the first well was created.
THE END
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